US Secretary of State lays out 5 principles for international cybersecurity
Citing that control of the Internet by governments is the anathema to freedom as oppressive governments would use such control to suppress dissident voices, Mr Kerry called on other countries to join the United States in supporting America's policy to promote cyber stability and to work with industry to keep the Internet open and free.
It is interesting to note that Mr Kerry chose to give this speech while visiting South Korea. In 2013 South Korea was subject to a wave of cyberattacks which included Distributed Denial of Service attacks against government and news media websites, the defacement of some sites, and earlier in the 2013 the infection of thousands of PCs in media organizations which resulted in data being wiped from those computers. South Korea has claimed these attacks came from IP addresses located in North Korea and that the attacks were sponsored by the North Korean government. Mr. Kerry also called out North Korea for its aggressive role in cyberspace and cited the attacks last year against Sony Pictures Entertainment which resulted in the US Government imposing sanctions against North Korea.
Telling the audience that "the basic rules of international law apply in cyberspace" Mr Kerry outlined five principles that if all countries should follow would "contribute substantially to conflict prevention and stability in time of peace." These principles are:
Mr Kerry also called on all nations to work together to create a common framework for international cooperation in cyberspace and urged all countries to join to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.
Warning that any country who should seek to disrupt cyberspace or to attack others "will be held accountable for their actions", Mr Kerry stated the "United States reserves the right to use all necessary means, including economic, trade and diplomatic tools, as appropriate in order to defend our nation and our partners, our friends, our allies."
Many will see this speech as a very encouraging one and it may be the start of dialogue across many nations to work together to form a peaceful and stable online world. However, others will also point to how the United States itself has been called to task for allegedly launching a cyberattack against another nation in the form of Stuxnet and the allegations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden on how the NSA, and other western government spy agencies, have compromised the security and privacy of individuals and companies around the world.
Open dialogue will be essential to ensuring a safe and secure Internet for this generation and the generations to come. Perhaps this speech may be the first opening rounds of that dialogue.